Can devolution bring a new blueprint for scaling business?

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Can devolution bring a new blueprint for scaling business?

Logical Progression is a collaborative business-led initiative aiming to turn Sussex & Brighton from a vibrant startup region into a confident scale-up powerhouse.

Led by a partnership between Alirity, Sussex Innovation, ScaleUp Sussex, always possible and The Goldenacre, a first report sets out why the move towards a combined regional approach to the economy might be the time for a serious rethink on how to support ambitious businesses to grow and stay in Sussex.

🔗 Read the full Phase 1 report

🔍 Why this matters

Brighton & Hove has one of the UK’s highest startup rates — but just 30% of new businesses manage to scale. Sussex as a wider region also punches above its weight in digital, creative, green tech and R&D, yet struggles with:

High commercial rents (up to £42/sq ft)
Limited growth capital
Poor infrastructure for high-growth firms
Fragmented mentoring and support
Serious talent retention issues due to housing affordability and proximity to London

💡 What the report proposes

This case is made that businesses need more than another publicly-funded support programme - but a systems-level rethink of the scale-up ecosystem. The Logical Progression project identifies five critical areas for intervention:

Markets – sector clustering, export support, better visibility of success stories
Leadership – founder-to-CEO development, mentoring boards, peer networks
Talent – aligning education with business need, housing-linked retention
Finance – regional growth funds, better investor access, financial readiness
Infrastructure – smarter planning, workspace redesign, digital and physical upgrades

📊 Data snapshot

Greater Brighton GVA: £11.3bn
Productivity: £37.80/hr
Sussex digital job growth (2015–2022): +40%
Creative sector growth: +38%

BUT

Average house price: £470,453 (over 11 x average salary)
Office space down: 16% since 2018

(Sources: Brighton & Hove City Council, ONS, BRES, PRD, ScaleUp Institute)

🛠️ What's next?

Phases 2 and 3 will test bold hypotheses and build an open-source Scale-Up Playbook for Sussex, covering everything from procurement visibility and investor roadshows to leadership academies and regional skills maps. This includes:

A Scaleup Skills Matrix
A Business Gateway Playbook
A Stakeholder Engagement Toolkit
A Policy Audit & Effectiveness Framework

Any new mayor will need to publish a Sussex & Brighton growth plan quite quickly. The Logical Progression work is intended to be an open-source tool to do it collaborative and effectively.

📣 Get involved

If you’re a business leader, policymaker, investor or institution committed to regional growth, Logical Progression wants to collaborate. The message is clear: if we want more local businesses to grow sustainably and stay in Sussex, we need to design the system to let them.

📧 Contact: logical.progression@alirity.com
🔗 Website: logical-progression.org

NEXT EVENT:

How Devolution Needs To Help More Businesses To Grow

Thurs 26th June, 4-5pm

ONLINE

>> More info and tickets here

This is a collaborative project.

Co-funded, supported and developed by many businesses.

The Sussex And The City 100 are an evolving cross sector group of leadership organisations, invested in the future of Sussex and Brighton.

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